One of the more memorable - and most requested - moments of the Wales vs England game in Cardiff this weekend was this excellent try saving tackle in what should have been a sure thing for England.

Matt Banahan got shifted onto the wing in place of ace finisher Chris Ashton, who possibly would have done a better job of scoring the try. In fairness to Banahan though, and not to take anything away from courageous Shane, the pass from Mike Tindall was a bit loopy (despite what Stuart Barnes says).

Banahan was also a bit flat, so all in all it was a chance that England should have taken.

Williams however, at 5ft 7 and up against 6ft 7 Banahan, had other ideas, as he used the big guy's weight brilliantly, pulling him down and with James Hook nearby, Wales managed to not only prevent the try, but affect the turnover.

It's difficult to judge whether it was more a case of bad finishing, or brilliant tackling. I suppose we'll just go with both, and give the credit to Williams, who throughout his career has had to deal with being one of the smallest guys on the park, yet will no doubt go down as a Welsh legend.

Williams, now 34, will be retiring after the world cup, so is fired up to have a great final tournament. He remains humble though, citing the other talent in the squad as a reason for him having to work extra hard to be a first choice player.

"You know one slip-up, or if the guy in your position has a great game and hits a bit of form, you could be sitting back home when the World Cup is going on in New Zealand," he said recently.

"There are no sure things these days, and that is great because it ensures there is no complacency with guys just assuming they are going to get picked. There are a lot of youngsters who are really impressing in training and have had great seasons with their regions. That's great for Welsh rugby and keeps everyone on their toes," he added.

Who would be your first choice wingers for Wales for the RWC, and England for that matter?

I was going to say that Bananaman would have slid over to score if Hook hadn't made it across to strip him but, no, looking again, Banahan loses the ball when he hits the turf. Rubbish.
After that game, I'd rather a chance was taken with Sharples in NZ than Banahan.

Bahanahanahna should have scored, but also, Williams actually managed to hit him high. He went down holding on to his neck. We used to call this the flying squirrel, or simply the Martinez, after our cowardly fullback.

^^^ Actually, I'd say Shane is one of the least humble players in the Welsh squad....

Anyway great tackle by him, totally outsized..

I'm wondering if its fair, I personally think Banahan lacks experience, I don't think he is quite up to scratch but I would pick him as a replacement and at least get him some game experience.. He is 24 at the moment, I'm just wondering if he will improve in say a year or two... I know it doesn't help right now... but watching the guy, I can't really right him off as useless, and really I can only really pin point a lack of experience or something... maybe its an over excited feeling of size.. what would say jason robinson do in that position? hand off? rather than barge through or over...

RD your right about the pass and Banahan's position. However he still should have scored and I cannot imagine that many other international wingers not getting over from there. Should have fended, used his weight and put it down with his outside hand. Hosea Gear scored a much more difficult one last year at Twickenham!

Shane Williams is an absolute legend! you would expect Banahan to be scoring that against pretty much anyone, let alone Shane Williams, he's an amazing player and really proved size isn't everything in rugby with that tackle.

I actually agree with the anon saying the pass was piss poor from tindall... it was a slow lob that banahan took to the side of him... personally i think a chip would have been the better option for banahan to run onto... but there we have it..

and really if you look at the experience williams has against the experience banahan has there is a bit of a mis match. I honestly don't know if Ashton would have scored that, I think Williams would have just used the experience to be a real pain in the behind!

Agreed, not a world cup starter, not unless he pulls something out the hat, but give him time and i think he will be better...

Remember a large amount of players who are professional have played "the backs" all their life or "the forwards" (obviously this gets mixed about a bit within the two groups) banahan came from the forwards, so some of the early developmental skills for back play are coming to him now...

I don't understand the flack Banahan got for this, tbh. It was just a very good and fortunate tackle by Shane.

And I really don't rate Banahan or want him near the England team, but I feel slamming him as hard as people are for this incident does a massive dis service to the efforts of Shane William - Who I also don't like ;)

If you watched the video properly u will see Banahan receives the ball on the five meter line, gets tackled 4 meters from the line, he is 2,01m tall and with outstretched arm and momentum he would have slide and stretched over the line for touch down no problem , the only thing that stopped him was a great smoother tackle from a great professional William who put his body between the ball and the goal line. This was a great tackle on a winger with height and weight advantage!

Indicative of England's approach to contact in that game - cross your arms around the ball and try and bounce everything off with your chest, if he'd have checked inside and tried to fend it could have been a different story. The whole challenge with tackling wingers is they jink and shift your feet putting you off balance, a prop would have picked that line and i'd much rather tackle a prop than a jinking winger any day (or NOT tackle a jinking winger as the result may be..)

"If you watched the video properly u will see Banahan receives the ball on the five meter line,"

I think it is ironic to comment people not viewing something properly, where its clear as day that banahan received the ball well before the 5 metre line....

He gets tackled about 2 metres before the 5 metre line... and still makes it to about 20cm from the line... so really I'd say its great technique to shift the ball from williams, but banahan did well in that situation...

Jesus wept, give bahanan a break ffs! one missed chance and hes shit etc... "if we had ashton...bla bla blah". Ashton would have swan dived and made even more of a cunt of himself. I cant stand stuart barnes either, why are his ears non existant? did he cut them off so he cant hear the shite he spouts? Fuckdog.

Bit confused by all of this stuff about 'great tackle'. It's pretty obvious that Banahan only goes to ground because Williams has him by the neck! Pause footage at 53 secs. Hence he ploughs into the ground head first - no wonder he loses the ball! Extremely dangerous and illegal tackle - penalty try to England, yellow card Williams!! Everyone's getting hung up on the david v goliath victory without thinking about whether he tackled him legally.

I'm not sure if it can be argued williams had banahans shoulder first?!?

Yeh barnes does spout some real shit sometimes...

"pass from tindall was perfect..off his left hand"

What does that mean? it was a shit pass if it was off his right hand? or it was a perfect pass.. and it was off his left hand?!?!?

You could tell banahan wanted the chip thats why he was up near the line so much...the gap behind the welsh defence was HUGE and that pass was a nice lob which gave the welsh tons of time to get across and meant banahan had to take it almost stationary.

Tindall as "well seasoned" as he may be is to blame for this large fuck up.. Ok, banahan might have to practice keeping control of the ball. But tindall has to learn how to read the fucking game!

The combination of Tindall's pass and Bahahan's positioning wasn't great, because Banahan had to check his run to collect the ball. Not sure which of the two to blame for that. Banahan would have been over if the pass/run had been a little sweeter.

Bloody hell, Nick Easter could of scored that try :/.Anywayz my ideal starting English back three (I know it won't happen though) is Monye,Ashton,Foden with Armitage on the bench and sharples also in the squad.

Any one who has played the game realizes that a great play by one player usually requires a mistake by his/her opponent. Banahan looked very naive to believe that he could just run over his opponent, looked for intent on sending a silly message than scoring. A step and one hand fend would have probably put him in.

However, this takes nothing away from williams tackle as he played what his opponent gave him and his weight against him.

I think that banana looks better as a battering ram 12 than an 11 anyway.

Is anyone else as sick of barnes's Ashton love festival? He finished one try created by youngster and lawes and now every time he talks about winger play he cites him.

Mate I really can't believe he's been given the nod ahead of Sharples. What does Banahan offer? Poor handling skills, big size, good jump to the ball, relative pace, horrible kicking and zero game awareness.

Same with Hape. Or Tindall. Or Botha. Or Cueto. Or Fourie.

I do like England (although I'm not english), but I just can't understand some of their selections.

The guy's pass and game reading skills were hideous, if that was wilkinson there instead that would have been kicked to banahan and it would have been a try. Look at banahans line, he was clearly expecting a kick, otherwise he would not have been so far up, there was years of space behind the defenders and tindall cocked up!

Banahan taken round the neck and driven head first into the ground won't help his ball control skills!

"the fact is that Matt Banahan has now won 11 caps for England and started the last 3 games. In all those caps, he's not done anything at all special. 4 tries collecting cross kicks is not special."

Hate to break it to you, but this was a clear crossfield kick opportunity, and another thing I hate to break to you is that points win the game. Therefore 4 tries help england. And if he grabs crossfield kicks in world cup matches it will do england a great favour. Not to mention tiquiri scored a try in the 2003 world cup with a cross field kick...

anyone can catch a rugby ball in mid-air unopposed. remind me of a try he's scored for England (or even created) that has been a piece of pure individual brilliance on his part. you know, even basic stuff like being able to dive over in the corner under pressure or being a supporting runner in the right place.

Tiquiri was not unopposed, he had robinson to beat.. although the height difference is significant it was not "unopposed" I don't really get if you are supporting or hating banahan... personally I do not blame him for this, maybe next time he will go for a hand off or a better hand off.. but really tindall's pass is what fucked this up!

next time Banahan should be back in the Premiership making little 20 year old wingers look silly while a player with some kind of pace/ vision/ class that can pose even the remotest threat to an international defence is out in NZ with the England squad instead.